High school football: Defenses make adjustments to up-tempo offenses

Speed, simplicity help control pistol

11:37 PM,
Sep. 5, 2013

Croton-Harmon tight end/defensive end Peter Miller says the Tigers' no-huddle defense allows them to keep pace with today's up-tempo offenses. The defenders get signals from the sideline rather than scrambling to their assignments.

Written by

Josh Thomson

When New Rochelle met Christian Brothers Academy for the 2004 state championship, Lou DiRienzo recognized it as a tipping point. His program had spent all season, all decade and basically all of its existence defending against run-first teams with one or two receiving threats at most. But here came CBA, armed with an all-American quarterback running a spread offense that highlighted as many as four receivers.

"We started thinking we had to change some of the things we did," the New Rochelle coach said.

DiRienzo and his contemporaries have had no choice but to adapt. With the evolution to more ...